The West Midlands ambulance service is at risk of collapsing completely this summer, its director of nursing said, predicting a “titanic moment” in August.
Mark Docherty said patients were “dying every day” from preventable causes due to ambulance delays and did not understand why the NHS England and the Quality of Care Commission (CQC) were not at the forefront of the problem.
In an interview with the Health Service Journal (HSJ), Mr Docherty said too many people were waiting in the back of ambulances for 24 hours before being admitted to hospital.
He claimed that serious incidents have quadrupled in the last year due to serious delays.
Documents from a quality government meeting at the trust in March showed another director warning that “deaths are occurring that should not happen” and that nationally patients are disappointed in a “catastrophic situation”.
Docherty said: “August 17 is the day I think everything will go wrong.
“I’ve been asked how I can be so specific, but that date is when a third of our resource (will be lost) due to delays, and that means we can’t respond.
“Mathematically it will be a bit like a Titanic moment.
“It will be a mathematical (certainty) that this thing is sinking, and then it will be beyond the turning point.”
He added: “It would make me the happiest person in the world if all the members of the system show me that the ambulance service in the West Midlands won’t actually fail on August 17, and I was completely wrong.”
March’s NHS data from England show that ambulances across the country don’t have multiple targets, including too slow response times to the most urgent incidents.
Docherty said: “All the problems we’re building for the future are huge. And I don’t know why the CQC isn’t for all this, I don’t know why NHS England isn’t for all this.”
An NHS spokesman said: “The NHS has been working hard to reduce ambulance delays and has allocated £ 150 million in additional system funding for ambulance service pressures in 2022- 23.
“There is no doubt that the NHS is still facing pressure, and the latest figures are another reminder of the crucial importance of community and social care, in helping hospitalized people when they are in a position to do so.” not only because it is better for them, but also because it helps to free up precious NHS bedding. “
Victoria Vallance, CQC’s director of secondary and specialist health care, told HSJ that the impact of “escalating pressure on the NHS is serious” with “unacceptably long delays for patients”.
He added: “There are very real concerns about the significant risk to patients and the impact on paramedics and hospital staff, as they do their best to provide safe care in the most demanding circumstances, and we have highlighted these concerns at our public board meeting.
“We will continue to oversee the services and use our regulatory powers when necessary.”